BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



65 



BIRDS AND CROPS. 



The Royal Society for the Protection of 

 Birds offers a Silver Medal and five guineas, 

 and a second prize of two guineas, for Essays 

 settmg out How best to guard fruit, flowers, 

 and agricultural produce from the attacks 

 of birds, by other methods than those 

 involving destruction of the birds. Writers 

 are asked to describe the most economical 

 and effective appUances, and importance 

 will be attached to authenticated reports of 

 successes which may have attended the use 

 of the means recommended. 



The purpose of the competition is to meet 

 the needs of our farming and gardening friends 

 who, while wishing to preserve their crops at 

 certain seasons, desire also to spare the birds 

 for their valuable work of insect and weed 

 destiiiction at other times of the year. 



A reprint has been issued of the valuable 



paper on " Conservation, or the Protection 



of Nature " (pubhshed in the Ottawa 



Naturalist of March 11th, 1911), by Dr. 



Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist, 



formerly of Manchester University. In the 



section on Birds, Dr. Hewitt says : — 



" The majority of people fail to aj)i)reciate the 

 part which birds i)lay in tiio o(;onoiny ot nature, and 

 the untold benefits resulting from their i)rotection 

 and encouragement. In combating those factors 

 which are responsible for so great a loss to the 

 agricultiu-e of this country — injuriou.s insects, 

 weeds, and small mammals — and to the forests, we 

 shall be compelled, to an increasing extent, to rely 

 on the natural enemies of these pests, especially the 

 birds which are the most powerful insecticides we 



have One of tiie most appalling facts in 



relation to Canadian agriculture is the wanton 



destruction of bird-life Legislation is not 



the only remedy to seek ; we must employ the 

 greatest of weapons — enlightenment by education." 



UcT 



Bird^and^Tree Day. 



,y(cr 



Teachers and all interested in Elementary 

 Schools are reminded that Bird-and-Tree 

 essays should be sent in not later than 

 August 1st. Forms to accompany them 

 wiU be forwarded to all schools that have 

 entered, and additional copies may be had 

 from the Society. The Norfolk Challenge 

 Shield has been on view at the Educational 

 Exhibit at the Royal Agricultural Show 

 at Norwich this month. 



One feature of the Bird-and-Tree scheme 

 is the gift of a carefully selected ^^ork on 

 bird, animal, or plant life, to the lending- 

 library of every school whose essays reach 

 the " pass " standard. These awards from 

 the Society are often supplemented by 

 managers and friends, and some schools have 

 thus in a few years acquired a shelf-full 

 of attractive volumes, sound in teaching, 



stimulating to young readers, and interesting 

 in the home. In this comiexion the atten- 

 tion of teachers is drawn to the pamphlet, 

 "The Other Side of the Bars," written by 

 Mr. Ernest Bell, with a preface by i\Ir. W. H. 

 Hudson, pubhshed by the Humanitarian 

 League. A thoughtful writer says in an 

 admirable causerie on the subject of 

 bird-caging, in Black and White (June 10th, 



1911) :— 



" In the brief space of this pamphlet ^Nlr. Bell 

 puts the whole case without sentimentality and 

 without rhetoric — he shows you poor Cesar's 

 wounds and bids them speak for him. His investiga- 

 tion of the question reveals the truth that cruelty 

 breeds cruelty, for behind the petty cruelty of 

 owning a caged bird there is a long line of even 

 more Infamous cruelty standing bet%yeen your 

 unfortunate pet and its one-time free life. There 

 is the cruelty of the bird-catcher, there is the cruelty 

 of transportation, and there is the cruelty of the 

 bird-shop— and knowledge of this trio of cruelties 

 which are behind every c^ged bird is enough to 

 awaken the indignation of any sane person and to 

 open the doors of innumerable gilded prisons." 



